Pur Hiker - where's the charcoal?

Just ordered replacement cartridge for old pur (now kayadyn) hiker. was also going to replace the activated charcoal in the bottle-top adapter's hopper. Can't find the charcoal anywhere. Talked to couple of gear "experts" at mgear and backcountry and neither one had a clue what i was talking about (they were probly in grammer school when i bought this thing). Anyhoo, has the filter technology changed where there's no longer need for charcoal on the output side of the pump? Any clues? Thanks!

There are several sources of activated carbon / charcoal on the Internet.

You want to make sure you get charcoal intended for water filtration, and more specifically the 'bone char' which absorbs metals and chemicals better than the other types. At least that's my understanding, you will want to do your own research, and maybe someone here on Trailspace can tell you more.

I use activated charcoal with all my filters, I made a small in line canister with hose nipples on either side. I don't think it's a must have item or your gonna die, but it does help with taste for sure. I don't worry with it for light & fast trips, but for more leisurely trips I like to enjoy my water and it makes your drink mixes taste better as well I think.

They hadn't heard of activated charcoal???

I still have my PUR water purifier, the one with an iodine impregnated filter & activated charcoal bottle top. I also have the little flat filter that took a flat, round, filter disk, can't remember what they named it though. That one was bad about clogging, just not enough filter surface it seemed to me.

I think here lately the move has been towards lighter, smaller, filter systems and maybe that's the reason they have moved away from external charcoal canisters. Maybe someone else can offer a more detailed / accurate take on that issue.

So there's activated charcoal within the new filter cartridges? I suspected that might be the case. That explains everything. That is a nice design improvement. I can remove that bulky bottle top hopper and gain some real estate in the padded cell. I believe that flat disc you mention just serves to keep the charcoal in hopper. Tried to read that water treatment article few days back... eyes glazed... way TMI. Thanks for the info.

BTW - hope you saw shoe lace post - those sterlings are very impressive - one thing i didn't mention, but will go back and add - while they are semi-slick and slide thru eyelets incredible smooth, they are flat/elliptical (but not too wide) so they do not come untied

The flat disk was a water filter about 5 or 6 inches in diameter that went in a water filter that Pur made, it didn't use a standard cylindrical cartridge. I didn't like it and don't know where mine is. Seems to me it was called the Pioneer.

I just tonight threw one of those flat PUR filters into the trash bin and there is no charcoal. I purged 45 items of camping gear from my pile and since I threw out the nalgene bottles I also threw out the filter.

Yes Jim, you are correct, the little flat filter did not have charcoal, the original Pur Hiker had some in the bottle filler cap that was attached to the end of the out feed hose. Hope I did not confuse anyone.

The trash is the proper place for that little filter I think, I was never impressed with it. But the Whisperlite, hey man throwing that away is a sin. HaHa